"America, Still the Indispensable Nation" - ICTS Seminar - January 15

Ambassador (Ret.) Paul Bremer III was the keynote speaker at a special seminar “America, Still the Indispensable Nation”, held at the Potomac Institute for Policy Studies on January 15, 2015. Mr. Bremer's diplomatic service spanned almost 40 years under eight presidents. During his tours in Washington, Bremer was Special Assistant to six Secretaries of State including service as Henry Kissinger's Chief of Staff. His overseas assignments included Afghanistan, Malawi, and Norway. President Reagan appointed him Ambassador to the Netherlands (1983-86) and then Ambassador at Large for Counter Terrorism (1986-89). After leaving government service, Bremer was Managing Director of Kissinger Associates, a strategic consulting firm headed by the former Secretary of State and subsequently Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Marsh Crisis Consulting Company, a firm providing crisis management advice and training to corporate boards and CEOs. A recognized expert in counter terrorism, in 1999 Bremer was appointed Chairman of the Bipartisan National Commission on Terrorism. The Commission reported to President Clinton in 2000 that the United States faced a growing threat from Islamic extremism. After 9/11, President Bush appointed Bremer to the President's Homeland Security Advisory Commission. In 2003 the president recalled Bremer to government service as Presidential Envoy to Iraq charged with beginning the country's political and economic reconstruction. Bremer's best - selling book, My Year in Iraq: The Struggle to Build a Future of Hope, was published in 2006. Bremer has received numerous awards for his public service. In 2004, President Bush awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian award, for his service in Iraq. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and serves on the Board of the RAND Corporation's Center for Middle East Public Policy. He is Chairman of the Sustainable Systems International, and a director of Alelo, a California - based technology firm. He also serves on the Boards of The Foundation for Relief and Reconciliation in the Middle East, the AMAR Foundation, the Chester Historical Foundation and the Fort at Number 4 in Charlestown, New Hampshire. Ambassador Bremer was the Founder and President of the Lincoln/ Douglass Scholarship Foundation, a Washington-based non-profit organization that provided high school scholarships to inner city youths. Bremer received his B.A. from Yale University, a CEP from the Institut D'Etudes Politiques of the University of Paris, and an MBA from Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration. He has an Honorary Doctor of Law degree from Ave Maria University. Opening remarks were presented by General (Ret.) Alfred Gray (Twenty-Ninth Commandant of the United States Marine Corps; Senior Fellow and Chairman of the Board of Regents, Potomac Institute for Policy Studies) and the event was moderated by Professor Yonah Alexander (Director, Inter-University Center for Terrorism Studies, and Senior Fellow, Potomac Institute for Policy Studies).

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